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Tag Archives: grant morrison

Passing on some more link love from last year, here’s an amalgamation of info on a bunch of different topics. Hopefully some of this will spark some interesting ideas and discussions.

4 Color Process is a blog that pulls out small details from comic books and celebrates the beauty in the dots that made up comics, especially the cheaply produced comics of the past. They put together their missions statement, so to speak here: In Defense of Dots: The lost art of comic books. (They also get credit as where I found all the images for the banners. Thanks 4CP!)

We’ve already mentioned Chris Ware in class. His book, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth won the Guardian First Book Award in 2001, marking the first time a comic won a major UK literary award. Here’s an interview he did at the International Copenhagen Comics Festival: http://www.tcj.com/alternative/interview-with-chris-ware-part-1-of-2/. He discusses his approach to pacing and whether he feels applying filmic structural techniques are appropriate for comics.

Grant Morrison has written any number of groundbreaking comics, among them Arkham Asylum, The Invisibles, Animal Man, We3, All-Star Superman and recently, on Batman and Robin, and Batman Incorporated. He just published a non-fiction work about superheroes called Supergods. Here’s an AV Club interview with him from 2010: http://www.avclub.com/articles/grant-morrison,41311/

I feel like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison are different sides of the same coin. Both of them write the craziest, tripiest comics you will ever read. But one is obsessed with futurism and the other with pagan roots in the past. Alan Moore broke into the US consciousness with his run on Swamp Thing, and has been responsible for seminal works like V for Vendetta, The League of Extrodinary Gentlemen, From Hell, and Watchmen. Here’s an interview with him: Hipster Priest: A Quietus Interview With Alan Moore

Mike Mignola is probably most famous for creating Hellboy. If you’re only familiar with the movie, it’s worth seeing out the comic, if just to get a sense of his very stylized drawing style. It’s a bit reminiscent of Frank Miller’s use of deep blacks and highly contrasted edges, but the tone feels different to Miller. Bldgblog interviewed Mignola about the worlds he’s created for his characters: RUIN, SPACE, AND SHADOW: AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE MIGNOLA

Artists like Chris Ware emphasize how important layout and design can be to comics, but he’s not the only one who blurs the line between illustrator and designer. This article talks about a number of artists whose comic work can be seen in terms of graphic design as well as fine art: Portraits of Comic Book Artists as Graphic Designers. And there are graphic designers who are involved in the publication, marketing and branding side of comic book distribution. Tom Muller has worked in comics, as well as other mediums. Here’s a piece by him on the subject: Tom Muller on the “Rise & Fall” of Design in Comic Books

From a fine artist, Mark Newport creates full-size superhero costumes that are hand knitted. “They push the image of the hero by highlighting knitting materials, textures, and traditions (cables and the use of “ends” to make a sweater) in the form of the costume.”

50 creators, 43 years, 1 narrative. Nelson is a very different take on an anthology. By asking artists to each take 1 year of a person’s life, the finished book is a patchwork quit, each piece could stand alone, but together creates something far richer than if it had been crafted out of a single fabric.